The Custody Battle
by perpetualpathology
Summary: A little oneshot following the custody battle over Emma...


Of all the possible outcomes, she hadn't expected that. She had spent hours and hours with her legal team over the weeks and then the final few hours in the hearing as to who should have custody over the innocent six month old girl. '_I hereby give full custody of Emma to Jacqueline Naylor._' Kept in ringing through her head as she stood in the town hall reception where the hearing had taken place, waiting for her little girl to be collected from the crèche.

Oddly, the reasons for the decision hadn't been ones that Jac had thought of herself. Sure, she had pointed out that there was no way that Jonny could continue with Emma's current nanny and so he would need to get a cheaper one - and Jac had put emphasis on the fact that Emma was already beginning to become anxious around strangers and so getting a new nanny would be very traumatic for her. But there had also been Jonny's records. He had a charge for violent and disorderly behaviour when he was 28 at a New Year's party in Edinburgh - and that had certainly affected their decision as Jac had a clean record. Thankfully, the accusation of murder a few years back hadn't been put on here records as there was no need - she was innocent.

And then there was Jonny's behaviour in the court. When it became clear that the counsellor was swaying towards Jac's side, Jonny had jumped out of his chair and began shouting and arguing. He then proceeded to kick a table which only made the decision easier.

"Ms Naylor." Jac was brought out of her thoughts by a young girl who was holding Emma.

"Oh um, thank you." Jac said without a hint of her meaning what she said as she lifted the child onto her hip and then turned around. The girl in jeans and flowery top began to play with Jac's long straight hair, as she always did, whilst Jac made her way out of the building. But when she exited the doors and stood on the top step, she saw Jonny sitting at the bottom with his head hung in his hands and Mo was squatted besides him trying to comfort the distressed man.

"I can't live like this anymore." He sobbed and Jac kept her icy look showing no emotion but she couldn't help but feel sympathy for the man she loved.

"Hey, trust me I know what's it's like to lose a child." Mo said softly as she rubbed his back. "It gets better, in time."

"Yes but you chose to give up the baby that wasn't even related to you, Emma is my baby, my daughter and I didn't chose to give her up." Jonny argued as he finally lifted his head, only he noticed Mo looking back towards the building, and as a he looked up the steps, his eyes fell on his daughter, and the complete and utter bitch who had contributed to his fiancée's death and who had now taken his child away from him.

Slowly, Jac made her way down a few of the stairs and Jonny just turned around as he couldn't bare to look her in the eye. But within seconds, he could feel her presence behind him.

"You can still come to see her at my place... I'm not going to stop you from seeing her." Jac stated.

"Oh you're too kind." Jonny retorted.

"Jonny." Mo scalded.

"What? How can I possibly be in the wrong here Mo?" Jonny protested.

"Look, I told you not to take this any further. But no, you go and get a legal team when you know Jac can clearly afford a better one. I told you think would happen right from the off." Mo stated. "You were just blinded by grief."

"Yeah because she-" Jonny began as he pointed blatantly at Jac.

"No, don't blame Jac. You can't keep on blaming Jac for an accident that she had nothing to do with." Mo stated and Jac went to continue her journey home but Mo stood in her way. "No. Please, just stay here so we can sort this out." Mo pleaded in a whisper.

"Emma's getting cold." Jac stated as the wind blew her hair about and she had to tuck it behind her ear to keep it out of her face. Of course on such a depressing day with such a major decision to be made had turned out to be grey and murky. The sky was covered with thick, dark clouds and it began to rain.

"Well let us go back to yours then. Please Jac, you and Jonny need to sit down and talk about this. You don't want Emma suffering while you and Jonny argue for months do you?" Mo begged.

Jac remained silent as she continued on her journey but she paused once she was a few steps below the two colleagues.

"Come round mine at 1pm." Jac said as she looked at the father of her child, before she went down to her car, placed Emma in her car seat in the back, then got in the driver's seat and pulled away.

Jac kept quiet as she drove her baby back to her flat, whilst the infant began babbling away as it played with the colourful rattle that was attached to the handle of her carrier. She couldn't believe that she, the ice queen, hard as nails Naylor had gotten custody over the small child, instead of the friendly, paternal man that was her father. She had actually persuaded herself that she was going to lose her daughter, so she had began packing away Emma's things into boxes, ready for her to move in with her father.

She arrived in the car park, picked up her daughter and then headed up to her flat which she had to tidy up and unpack Emma's things before Jonny arrived.

* * *

**12:50pm**

"You're early." Jac remarked as she opened the door to see Jonny. "That's a first- hang on, why are you here?" Jac moaned as Mo came from around the corner and entered her flat too.

"I'm the peacemaker." Mo replied and Jac walked into the living room to find Jonny sat on the edge of the coffee table whilst Mo was sat cross legged on the floor besides him with Emma in her lap.

"What are you doing?" Jac demanded because she had just put her daughter down for a nap but Mo obviously had other ideas.

"Emma's staying here, to stop both of you from shouting. Aren't you Emma?" Mo smiled and Jac rolled her eyes before she sat down on the sofa so she was facing Jonny, with Mo on there carpet next to them. "Right. First of all, Jac don't interrupt, and Jonny I want you to tell Jac, what you want." Mo said slowly.

"What I want? What I want is to be happily married with Bonnie, living in a cottage in Scotland with Emma living with us and I want Jac to be out of sight, out of mind." Jonny stated angrily.

"And realistically, what do you want now?" Mo asked.

"I want to see my daughter every day." Jonny stated.

"Right, and Jac are you okay with that?"

"Why did I even agree to this?" Jac huffed. "This is like the Jeremy Kyle show." She snapped.

"Well it wouldn't be a bad idea to get you two on there actually." Mo joked which earned her a glare from both parties. "Right." She began as she held both of Emma's hands whilst the girl wriggled about. "How about if Jonny comes to see Emma every evening after his shift, and he could look after Emma on Sundays when you're on call." Mo suggested.

"But that would involve leaving him, unattended in my flat all day so no." Jac concluded.

"Not necessarily, he could just take a changing bag to his flat."

"He hasn't been to his flat in weeks, he sleeps in the on call room." Jac stated.

"Wh- do you?" Mo asked confusedly as she looked up at her best friend. "Jonny it's been 3 months." Mo pushed but she decided that that was another issue altogether. "Alright then, fine. If you let Jonny look after Emma all day on Sundays, he could come and stay in my flat during the day." Mo offered.

"Fine. Sundays and an hour or two after his shifts during the week." Jac said simply.

"Well that went a lot easier than I thought it would." Mo smirked.

"Yeah well believe it or not, I don't have the intention to take Emma away from Jonny. Despite the fact that that's what he wanted to do to me." Jac quipped as she bent down and picked up emma.

"Jac stop." Jonny ordered as she began to try and hide out in her bedroom but she paused in the doorway. "Why do you think I wanted to take Emma away from you?"

"Because you hate my guts. I'm pretty sure you've made that clear over the last three months of legal battles over our daughter." Jac stated.

"No... It's because I only want what's best for my daughter."

"And so, even though I'm her mother, I'm not what's best for her, no?" Jac said and Mo felt sympathetic as she heard the hurt in the female's voice.

"Just because she was in your womb and you gave birth to her, does not mean that you're her mum." Jonny stated. "You said that about you're own mother Jac, so don't tell me it's not true-"

"I don't have a mum." Jac interrupted. "Which is why I don't want Emma to go through the same as I did." She stated as she balanced the girl on her hip whilst she began to play with her mother's hair again.

"Look can you two just stop arguing because most of the time, I don't even know what you're arguing about." Mo stated.

"I'll tell you what we argue about: Jonny doesn't want me to be Emma's mum and he still blames me for what happened to Bonnie." Jac stated bluntly.

"Don't say her name." Jonny muttered.

"Well then stop blaming me for something I didn't do. I didn't push her into the road, and I certainly don't have the HGV license to have been able to drive the lorry so how on earth is it my fault?" Jac protested and suddenly Emma became upset, began crying and buried her head in her mother's chest.

"See, now look what you've done." Jonny stated.

"Er, if you haven't noticed, she's clinging on to me pretty tightly, so it's not as if she's crying because of me is it?" Jac argued.

"Both of you stop it." Mo ordered. "Look, Jonny doesn't blame you."

"Yes he does." Jac stated.

"Jonny, do you blame Jac for what happened?" Mo asked as she avoided saying the woman's name. He paused for several moments, before he finally replied.

"No." He said quietly.

"There. Look you're both Emma's parents and whether you like it or not, you've got something that links you two for the rest of your lives." Mo stated. "For the sake of Emma, can you please just shake hands and at least try to get along." Mo pleaded.

Jac looked at Jonny's hands as she didn't want to put her hand out if he had no intention of shaking her hand, however, he slowly and reluctantly moved his hand and held it out in front of him. Jac ensured she had one arm safely under Emma's bum to take her weight before she loosely shook Jonny's hand.

"There, was that so hard?" Mo said sarcastically.

"No. Now can you get out of my flat." Jac ordered.

"But I haven't held Emma today." Jonny protested.

Jac rolled her eyes before she handed Emma over to her father and Mo smiled as he cooed with his baby.

"Cor, you're getting heavy aren't you? Yeah!" He smiled.

"If you're going to make me nauseous can you at least give me warning." Jac moaned before she turned and went into the kitchen to give him some time with his daughter but annoyingly, Mo followed her. "Yes Maureen?"

"Thank you, for not taking Emma away from him." Mo said gratefully.

"What, even though he had every intention of taking Emma and never coming back?" Jac retorted.

"He's still grieving and confused." Mo stated quietly. "And Emma means the world to him... Two sugars by the way."

"What?"

"In my tea. Two sugars please." Mo smiled..

"Right, so you come to my flat uninvited and then you practically kidnap my daughter from her cot, and now you're demanding a cup of tea." Jac protested.

"Yep." Mo nodded innocently.

"You wish." Jac retorted before she went back into the living room where she found Jonny lying on the floor hovering Emma above him pulling faces. "Y'know I sometimes get confused which one is six months old, and which one is the fully grown adult."

"And I sometimes get confused between Jac and Emma because they've both got ginger hair, and somehow, Emma already knows how to give someone an icy glare when she isn't happy." Jonny stated.

"Oh I wonder who taught her that?" Mo said innocently as she glanced at Jac.

"I didn't teach her it, it's just in her genes." Jac said smugly.

"Speaking of which, why is my daughter wearing jeans?"

"Why? Would you rather she was wearing nothing?" Jac remarked.

"No, I mean why isn't she in pretty little dressed and tights instead of jeans and a t-shirt?" Jonny asked.

"Because she's got a habit of whenever she's wearing a dress, she pulls it right up and shows everyone her nappy, especially when we're in public and considering I was taking her to the town hall today, I didn't think that her doing that would be appropriate." Jac explained.

"Maybe she's just got her mother's habit of getting undressed whenever she sees a man." Jonny remarked cheekily.

"Jonny!" Mo shrieked.

"What? It's true!" Jonny stated.

"No it's not." Jac argued. "The last time I slept with someone was with you when she was conceived over a year ago." Jac stated.

"What, when you had weird bereavement sex?" Mo smirked.

"Right, can you two just go because she was meant to be down for her nap fifteen minutes ago." Jac stated as she took Emma off of Jonny.

"Night night sweetheart." Jonny blew Emma a kiss as Jac went to go and put her down in her cot.

"So I'll come round yours after my shift tomorrow yeah?" Jonny called as he and Mo made their way to the door.

"If you must." Jac huffed from the bedroom and Jonny smiled before he and Mo left Jac's flat. That morning, he had woken with high hopes of getting custody of his daughter and taking her away from Holby. But his hopes had come crashing down when Jac had been given full custody. He was just lucky that Jac still had feelings for him, otherwise he probably wouldn't have been able to see his daughter again...

**Thanks for reading. I'm not entirely sure about this one shot as I don't actually know what the storyline was but I gathered I might as well publish it :/ Please review :)**

**Also, is it me or are there very few updates any more for Holby City fanfics?**


End file.
